Marco Apicella's few yards as a Grand Prix driver
Author
- Mattijs Diepraam
Date
- 8W May 1998 issue, offers are kindly accepted to extend the length of this article!
Related articles
- Dome - A stillborn GP project from Japan, by Rainer Nyberg
Who?Marco Apicella What?Jordan-Hart 193 Where?Monza When?1993 Italian GP |
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Why?
As seen with the Mugen Honda, engine switches do Eddie Jordan more harm than good. 1993 was Jordan's second disaster year after Eddie's Yamaha adventure killed off Modena's and Gugelmin's F1 career the year before. With the Hart engine in the back of the 193 they faired little better. The only positive aspect of Jordan's 1993 season was 19-year-old Rubens Barrichello very much outpacing two very respected team mates, Ivan Capelli and Thierry Boutsen, who by the giant-killing hands of Rubinho both bowed out of F1 in 1993. After Boutsen's farewell party at Spa, Eddie Jordan decided to give the second 193 to up-and-coming F3000 drivers, himself having brought Jean Alesi to F1 fame through his own F3000 team.
Marco Apicella was the first of them to taste F1 at his home GP, followed by his countryman Emmanuele Naspetti at Estoril and a certain Eddie Irvine at the final two GPs in the Pacific. Sadly, after his first lap departure at Monza Marco never drove an F1 car in anger again (discounting his Bridgestone test drives in a Ligier hack and some early tests for the aborted Dome F1 project) and so decided to carve out a Japanese career for himself, with the 1994 Japanese F3000 title for Dome as its definite high.